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| Volume 48, Number 3, Fall 1999 |
by Bob Finn
Some people find the nasw-x mailing lists frustrating, since they are occasionally filled with irrelevant chatter. But, as this month's column reveals, they can also provide excellent career advice (see the nasw-talk section) and valuable practical advice (see the nasw-pr section). They can also do far more than that. An nasw-freelance discussion about onerous contract terms has apparently led a major online health publication to improve its freelance contracts.
It's my hope that you'll be able to follow the discussions mentioned here by going to http://nasw.org/onthelists.htm and searching for the subject headers referenced below. However, we've recently had some difficulty with the "threading" of discussions in our archive. If those problems are still not fixed by the time you read this, go to the main archive at http://nasw.org/lists/ and search each of the list archives by date. The following discussions all began in late October 1999 and continued into the first week of November.
In May of 1997, Susan Grammer, a bench scientist who wished to change careers to science writing, wrote to nasw-talk asking for advice. British science writer Michael Kenward's one word response (later dubbed "The Aaaaarrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!!" heard 'round the world) led to an excellent discussion full of advice for beginning science writers. That discussion is gathered into a single document at http://nasw.org/advice.htm.
Nasw-talk recently came at the same topic from another direction. Technical writer Jessica Stuckert wrote that she wished to switch to science writing, and that her dream was to write or edit for publications such as Smithsonian, National Geographic, and Nature. She noted that her BA degree was in English and mentioned that she was thinking of going back for another degree in biology or zoology.
The many people who responded were practically unanimous in their opinion that science writers don't need a science degree. The responses were also generous with other pieces of advice. Several people suggested that while a science degree was not necessary, it would be good idea to take a few courses, concentrating on breadth rather than depth. Aries Keck wrote, "Do science writers need to know science? I'd say you don't need to know science, but you do need to love it." Others suggested taking science journalism courses or enrolling in one of the graduate programs in science journalism, such as the ones at UC Santa Cruz or Johns Hopkins. And still others pointed out that writing and editing jobs at Jessica's dream publications are a bit out of the range of beginners in the profession, and counseled her to set her sights somewhat lower, at least at first.
You'll find this discussion under the subject headings "A Career Question from a Technical Writer" and "Starting out in science writing."
nasw-freelance
A recent nasw-freelance discussion had the form of a mythic adventure complete with a hero who encounters opposition, who then enlists a band of fellow adventurers, and who finally vanquishes the foe.
In this case our freelance hero was Richard Robinson. He was offered a contract by CBS-Medscape (now called CBS-Healthwatch, the consumer-health site associated with Medscape) that he found unacceptable. In particular, Richard objected to the contract's indemnity clause and to its kill fee. Several other list subscribers wrote that they too had received this unacceptable contract, although there was some dispute about whether the offer of a kill fee was necessarily a bad thing.
In the final act of our drama so many freelancers complained that the contract has apparently been changed. Richard reports that the CBS-Healthwatch contract now reflects indemnity only for judgments (not mere claims), and kill fees only for unacceptable work (not at the whim of an editor). Richard sent his thanks "Éto all who made noise on this list about what's right and wrong in contracts. We made a difference."
Three cheers for Richard and for his band of merry science writers, who indeed succeeded in taking from the rich and giving to the poor!
You'll find this discussion under the subject heading "cbs-medscape contract."
Our mailing lists can be used for career advice, for passionate argument, and to assist in negotiating contract terms, but they can also help answer practical and highly focused questions. Andrea Gibson asked for suggestions for a one-stop reference book, covering everything from physics to the social sciences, and within a couple of days she received a number of ideas.
Several people suggested the Encyclopaedia Britannica, which is now freely available online at www.britannica.com. Gail Porter suggested Van Nostrand's Scientific Encyclopedia. Michael Schneider suggested the one volume McGraw-Hill Concise Encyclopedia of Science & Technology, although he noted that its prose is technical, so it's not much use for finding metaphors. Gene Charleton said he likes Timelines of Science and Technology, which he described as a "year-by-year compendium of developments in scientific and technological disciplines . . . set up as a series of parallel columns, so it's easy to track across to see what was happening at any given time across disciplines." Finally, Craig Hicks wrote that he finds specialized dictionaries to be more useful than encyclopedias. "The brevity of their definitions often gives me ideas for concise explanations of my own."
You'll find this discussion under the subject heading "science reference books."
nasw-student
Laura Woodmansee (laura@woodmansee.com) recently wrote the following in nasw-talk: "I'm a graduate journalism student at USC and I just joined NASW. I'm interested in getting together a student e-mail list or chatting by e-mail with other science writing students. . . . Diane McGurgan said there are about 200 of us, but our names are not in the directory, so how do we find each other? It would be interesting to talk with other students about what they are working on. Maybe we could even help each other out."
In response I created a new NASW e-mail list called nasw-student.
Laura has agreed to be moderator. At this writing the discussion
is just getting underway, so I have little of substance to report.
I encourage all student members of NASW-and anyone else who's
interested-to participate in nasw-student. To subscribe send e-mail
to majordomo@nasw.org
with one of the following two lines in the body of the message:
subscribe nasw-student
or
subscribe nasw-student-digest
Bob Finn moderates the Web site and e-mail lists of the National Association of Science Writer http://nasw.org/. His e-mail address is cybrarian@nasw.org.